There are 34 new community cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand today.
File photo. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
Of today's new cases in the community, 21 are in Auckland, seven in the Waikato, two in the Bay of Plenty, three in Lakes and one in Canterbury.
There are 41 people in hospital, including eight in ICU or HDU.
Of the cases in hospital, there are 15 in Auckland, 21 in Middlemore, and five in Tauranga.
There were no more unexpected wastewater detections as of yesterday.
Auckland health and welfare providers are now supporting 1495 people to isolate at home, including 418 cases.
In Waikato, four of the news cases are in Te Kūiti, two in Hamilton, and one in Te Kauwhata.
Four were known contacts of previous cases and a fifth case has also been linked. The remainder are under investigation.
In the Bay of Plenty, both new cases are in Tauranga. One of these cases is a known contact of a previous case and investigations into potential connections with the second case are ongoing.
In the Lakes DHB area, the three news cases are in Rotorua, with all being linked to previously reported cases.
The one new case being reported in Canterbury today is also a contact of an existing case.
Border cases
There are 10 new cases at the border - four of these are the Omicron variant, which takes the country's total of the infectious variant to 49.
Eight people who tested positive to the virus in MIQ arrived on 24 December, from the United States, Singapore and Australia. The remaining two arrived on 21 December and 25 December; from United Arab Emirates and Egypt, respectively.
Vaccinations and taking care over holidays
Hawke's Bay is set to become the 12th DHB area to have 90 percent of its eligible population fully vaccinated. The region is only 192 second doses short of this milestone.
There were 96 first doses of the Covid-19 vaccines administered yesterday; 740 second doses; eight third primary doses and 903 booster doses.
The Ministry of Health said the lower vaccination numbers yesterday reflected Boxing Day falling on a Sunday and therefore many centres were closed.
The ministry is urging people to continue to play their part, by wearing masks, maintaining phsyical distancing in crowded or poorly ventilated indoor spaces, and using the Covid Tracer App to scan in.
Anyone with symptoms should also go get testing. Testing locations nationwide can be found on the Healthpoint website.